


Awkward.

by NorthernSerpent



Series: Falice: From A to Z [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Caught, F/M, Fluff, they watch blue planet 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 03:11:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15403659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernSerpent/pseuds/NorthernSerpent
Summary: In which Alice and FP are forced to talk about their relationship with Betty & Jughead.





	Awkward.

Alice and FP had been hoping to avoid this particular situation for as long as possible. In an ideal world, they would still be sneaking around with nobody the wiser. Just for a few months, just until the kids left for college. This would give them time to figure out what exactly this was before they would have to explain and defend it to upset teenagers who were still getting used to the idea of being Children of Divorce.

Alice had a very intricate plan formulated. She had decided that they would tell the kids over Thanksgiving Dinner and she was already planning out the menu to lessen the blow. FP went along with it because he knew that she needed to feel control over something amongst all the chaos in their lives.

They hadn't yet discussed what exactly it was that they would tell Betty and Jughead. The two adults still didn't quite know what it meant.

However it was still only April and Thanksgiving was a long ways away.

They had already been sleeping together on and off for nine months now. Longer, if they counted the two isolated incidents the previous year. 

It was easier to be discreet in the beginning. They could go days, even weeks, without seeing one another. But something changed in the last three months. Now Alice could barely go a day without his touch.

They got reckless.

Their windows of opportunity got more narrow. Instead of only meeting when they knew they had an entire afternoon to themselves, an hour was suddenly deemed acceptable. It was enough time for Alice to ride him in his truck during his lunch break, or to rest her head on his shoulder as they listened to David Attenborough's soothing voice and have her worries melt away.

They had assumed that Betty and Jughead would be busy after school with some extracurricular activity. How were they supposed to know that Jughead had forgotten his laptop charger at the trailer?

Had they known, Alice would have been long gone after she and FP made a mess of his bedroom. Instead, she slipped into nothing but a blue flannel shirt that was much too big for her. 

“What?” her stomach did a weird little somersault when she noticed his eyes twinkle. “You ruined my blouse.”

FP pulled on a pair of jeans from off the floor. 

“It suits you.” he shrugged. He sniffed a t-shirt and discarded it back on the ground, giving up on finding a clean shit. Before Alice could think of anything to say back to him, he made his way over to her and wrapped his bare arms around her. “What do you say we watch some more Blue Planet 2 before you have to leave?”

Alice relaxed into his chest and smiled. “I've created a monster.”

“No, you know what's a monster? That weird fish with the see-through head! What kind of alien shit is that?”

Alice laughed and took his hand, dragging him to the living room. She pointed to the couch. “FP, Sit.”

She bent over and set up the dvd, fully aware of FP's eyes on her as his shirt rode up the curve of her ass. Pressing play, she curled into his side, laughing at how his mind was being blown by the ocean.

This is how Jughead and Betty found them.

Half-dressed, cuddling, and yelling so loudly at a nature documentary that they didn't hear the door open.

“What the fuck is going on here?” 

Alice and FP snapped their heads towards the sound of Jughead's voice. Betty stood beside him, her blue eyes wide, and her jaw to the floor. 

“Mom?”

Alice's face flared up and she felt FP tense up beside her. She wanted to melt into the couch and disappear. She took a deep breath. If she pretended that everything was okay, then maybe it would be. “Hello, Betty. What are you to doing here? I thought you had some Blue & Gold business to attend to?”

Betty blinked. “We just came to get Jughead's charger. What are you doing here?”

“Just watching some Blue Planet 2. I managed to get this one really into it,” she pointed at FP. The confusion deepened on the kids' faces. 

“How many episodes do you have left?” Jughead asked. 

FP shrugged, finally contributing to the conversation. “Around 3?”

Jughead and Betty shared an exasperated look that didn't go unnoticed by their parents. 

It was Betty's turn to ask the question. “How long have you been watching nature documentaries together?” 

FP looked down at the floor, refusing to make eye contact with his son. Alice bit her lip. “A few months,” she confessed meekly.

“A few months!” Betty exclaimed. The air around her was electric. She was about to lose it on Alice, but Jughead put a reassuring hand on her arm calming her down. Taking a deep breath, she reevaluated her strategy. “You have two minutes to put on your clothes, and then we are talking about this.”

Those two minutes came and went very quickly. Too quickly. 

Alice and FP sat at opposite ends of his couch, with their kids opposite them. Jughead ad Betty and grabbed the dining chairs and stuck them in the middle of the room to stare them down. Alice had thrown on her jeans, but kept the flannel on. The shirt she had come in was much less appropriate. 

Betty breaks the awkward silence. “I don't understand.”

Alice tensed at her daughter's inability to process this (admittedly shocking) information.

“Elizabeth, it's really not that complicated,” Alice snapped, straightening slightly in her seat. She was backed in a corner and she coming back swinging.

This make-shift interrogation was incredible unnecessary. This was Riverdale. Everybody was bound to have an opinion and they would all feel the need to share it with her and FP. Couldn't this be just theirs for just a little bit longer?

While Betty seemed to have moved towards being perpetually confused, Jughead was getting silently furious. He hadn't said anything yet since they returned with clothes, but FP suspected that he would be getting an earful later in the evening. It would probably involve hushed accusations along the lines of, “What were you thinking, Dad? My girlfriend's mom?”

He hadn't been thinking.Which is precisely why they were now in this situation, sitting side by side on his shitty couch while Betty made grand melodramatic accusations of scandal, and trying (and failing) to understand something that FP and Alice didn't quite yet understand completely.

“We've been through it already. FP and I watch nature documentaries,” Alice said crisply. “We are having an affair.”

This is the first time that she had given a name to their stolen moments.

An affair. They had been having an affair. 

Betty grimaced.“Mom, if you are are trying to make me sick, you are succeeding.”

Alice raised an unamused eyebrow, about to bite back with an acerbic remark that she would most definitely regret when FP interrupted her.

“I don't see what the fuss is about,” FP shrugged beside her. “We're two consenting adults. We're both not married. What's the big deal?”

“The big deal, FP,” Betty was seething. “Is that you two have been lying to us for months!” She turned her attention to her mother. “After everything we've been through, with Jason and Polly, with Dad, with Chic... you chose to keep this from us? Haven't you learned anything?”

Alice shrunk a bit in her seat. FP came to her rescue. “Betty, Jug... We were going to tell you.”

“Oh yeah? When?” Betty asked.

“Thanksgiving.” 

Betty sunk her head in her hands. “Unbelievable.”

Jughead's eyes darted between his father and Alice.

“I want to know what your intentions are,” he stated simply, breaking his silence. Then he asked the question that nobody else in the room had even considered. “Are you in love?”

The truth was, Alice had never allowed herself to think of it. It was too dangerous a road for her to go down because she had probably been in love with him for a lot longer than she should have been. She stared down at her hands, refusing to make eye contact with her lover who was gaping like a fish. 

Jughead frowned. “Is it serious?”

It was something about the way Jughead spoke that made her snap. She was tired of defending their relationship.

“Jughead, I was with Hal for over half my life and the ink on FP's divorce papers have only just dried. Right now, we barely know who we are, let alone who we are together but we're figuring it out. All I know is that my life is better when your father is in it.”

Alice stood, and looked pointedly at FP. “Would you be a dear and accompany me back to my house?”  
“The pleasure is all mine,” he stood and linked his arm in hers, leading them to his truck.

“Alice...” He hesitated for a moment after he started the engine. It was on the tip of his tongue but he knew that Alice might run if she was confronted with even more change. 

“Yes, FP?” she looked at him expectedly as he stared out the front window. "Go ahead."

“I didn't want to say anything to the kids when I hadn't told you first,” he turned to her, and caught her hand in his. “Alice, you do know I love you, right?”

“I kinda figured,” she smiled at his annoyed glare. “You know I love you too, right?”

"I've known for a while," FP squeezed her hand. “Probably before you did.”

**Author's Note:**

> But seriously... how deep is the ocean??????


End file.
